He wasn't injured at Japan Open and had a disastrous freeskate. Saying he was with injury is certainly legitimate but he was landing his 3Z-3T and 3A in practice, and quite smoothly, too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NwwYUcARBc I don't question his injury, but he could have still skated well. If Plushenko was bombing practices and not attempting or cleanly executing his 3Z-3T or 3A, then I could understand his injury as a greater contribution to his poor performance.
Anyways, my point was that Plushenko's fans are all over Yagudin no longer being a competitive skater, in spite of career-ending injury, but then defend Plushenko doing poorly as due to injury (even when practice video shows that he was still easily landing the jumps he attempted in his SP that he failed to execute).
I think his Euros SP was a disaster, in part due to injury, but also due to his jumping not being as reliable as it has been in the past.
I hope that every time Plushenko makes a major mistake people (i.e. his fans) don't immediately rush to defend him as "Oh, he's injured. Oh, he's coming back from injury.", etc. It doesn't matter if you're injured since what you do on the ice matters (and skaters perform with injuries all the time)... it might be a reason, but it shouldn't be an excuse. Nobody defended (nor should defend) Stojko's 1998 silver and not gold medal as him being injured and suggesting if he weren't injured he would have beaten Kulik. Ice is slippery too... so people make mistakes, even somebody who's been as consistent in the past as Plushenko. My personal view is that his body isn't what it used to be so even with good technique, he's unable to get the spring and cleanliness on his jumps that he once had (for example, his 3A in his Euros SP had a lean, not unlike his 2010 Olympic LP, but back then he had more capability to save the jump). But on the other hand, he could have just had an off day. It happens.
I don't agree there was ever a point in the recent season where plushenko wasn't injured. The back thing just got worse and worse. Even after the practices and the warmups with isolated jumps.
I agree that age could and maybe has reduced jump reliability. That is just a fact of nature regarding all skaters.
That is a big question of Sochi! Even with the disc replacement which was never done before on a skater you still have the knee issue? The knee issue was attended to march or April of 2012 but it's not like he got new knees.